Putin sinks G8 efforts to push out Assad

Russian President Vladimir Putin is under unprecedented international pressure to sign up to plans to end the war in Syria.

Officials were banned from the private dining room at the G8 summit in Northern Ireland, as the world's most powerful leaders urged Mr Putin to support a statement condemning the situation in Syria and mapping out a solution.

The showdown dinner hosted by David Cameron came after tense talks in Downing Street on Sunday, after which Mr Putin said that arming the rebels risked undermining centuries of European civilisation by backing those ''who kill enemies and eat their organs''.

Sources disclosed the British Prime Minister wanted a ''clarifying moment'' and had drawn up five key areas for discussion.

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There is understood to be unity between the other seven G8 leaders over the need for urgent action in Syria and the removal of the Assad regime.

Talks at the dinner focused on persuading the Russians to agree to a joint statement condemning the use of chemical weapons and ''going after the extremists''.

The statement would also address the process of transferring power from Bashar al-Assad to a transitional government ahead of a peace summit in Geneva.

British sources are cautious about the prospect of a deal as the Russians will not accept chemical weapons have been used by the Syrian regime. However, Mr Cameron is said to believe there are mutual areas of broad agreement.

US President Barack Obama also held his first face-to-face meeting for more than a year with Mr Putin, at which the growing Syrian crisis was discussed.

At the same time, Dr Assad told Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that if weapons were furnished to insurgents ''Europe's backyard will become terrorist, and Europe will pay the price''.

Mr Cameron, who faces internal opposition to arming rebels, said he had made no decision on the issue.

''I am as worried as anyone else about elements of the Syrian opposition who are extremists, who support terrorism, who are a great danger to our world. The question is what do we do about that?'' he said. ''My argument is that we shouldn't accept that the only alternative to Assad is terrorism and violence.

''We should be on the side of Syrians who want a democratic and peaceful future for their country and one without the man who is currently using chemical weapons against them.''

Dr Assad denied increasingly emphatic assertions by Western powers that his government has used deadly sarin nerve gas in the conflict. His remarks came after the US government announced last week it intended to provide some armaments to a vetted group of insurgents.

The European Union has also signalled the possibility it could arm insurgents. British Foreign Minister William Hague warned that moderate rebels risked being ''exterminated'' without foreign assistance. He said the crisis in Syria is ''the worst human tragedy of our time'' that is ''on a trajectory to get worse''.

In other talks at the summit, the G8 leaders agreed to stamp out the payment of ransoms for hostages kidnapped by ‘‘terrorists’’, British Prime Minister David Cameron’s office says.

Downing Street said the world leaders meeting at a summit in Northern Ireland would also call on companies to follow their lead in refusing to pay for the release of abductees.

‘‘Leaders agree to stamp out payment of ransoms to terrorists and call on companies to follow their lead,’’ Cameron’s office said on its Twitter feed.

British officials said Cameron had been keen to push the deal because funds raised by ransom payments were the main source of funding for terror groups, especially those in north Africa.

Britain was particularly focused on the subject following a hostage crisis at a gas plant in Algeria in January in which 37 foreign hostages were killed, among them six Britons.

Hostage-taking was worth $US70 million ($A74 million) to al-Qaeda-linked groups around the world over the last two years, British officials said.

Five of the G8 nations had been ‘‘shifting’’ on the issue while three did not pay ransoms as a matter of principle, British officials said.

In Britain, it is illegal to pay a ransom from the UK to anywhere else.